A full week of Spirit

So doing emails by days takes way too long so I'll do a quick run down haha.

So to start off we had Christmas Eve. We were late to church cuz they confused us with which building we needed to go into and so yeah that happened. After our zone got together and listened to the Branch Presidents kids talk about Christmas on their missions which was awesome. After that we met up in the gym where they did a Nativity Devotional. It felt a lot like being back at home with the family devotionals we do, they had little kids acting it out and it was awesome to feel at home.

Christmas day was flipping amazing! We started off by watching what I think was the original Christmas Carol movie and it was alright, but I don't have a real interest for movies here, which feels weird to say. Later we had a devotional with Elder Anderson in which he gave a lot of good advice for us. After that we went back to our class and just reviewed the talk and then it was awesome. We had another devotional and when it started, David Archuleta and Madelyn Paige were both there! David would sing a song or two and then talk about his grandmother's conversion story and then was telling mission stories and it was so cool! Madelyn would sing as well and talk about her conversion story along with her testimony of Christ and the Church. Then at the end they allowed all the missionaries to shake their hands! Honestly he's shorter than I thought but he's such a cool guy.

Tuesday we had a devotional with Elder Pingree of the seventy and it was really awesome. He talked about how he was a mission president and a few of the stories that he had with missionaries. His talk helped a ton and was really cool to hear. Also quick side note, he was a mission President in Houston and David's sister just got back from serving in Texas, Houston East mission, so something tells me the whole Texas, Houston area is just the best!

One of our teachers (sis. Chisholm) was mad we weren't teaching real/acting investigators so she invited a non-member friend who was interested in the Church to come. The first day he did, me and Elder Campbell didn't go cuz he got a migraine and slept about the whole day, but Tue next day we went and met him. His name is Jeff and he's a pretty cool guy, going to BYU for animation which is awesome. I'm not gonna get into details about the lesson we had but I know the spirit was powerful cuz he ended up coming back and touring the MTC the same day!

So a few of the Elders have Nerf guns in the building. We had four battles which were pretty crazy and I won almost all but the last, but it was fun. I also found out a bunch of the Elders were curious about my past airsoft adventures, so I told a few stories and then found out there was another Elder who did airsoft in Minnesota so we talked about guns for a little while. Kinda sucks cuz him and half the other Elders are about to leave for their fields so our dorms are about to get really quiet.

Anyway I'll just leave y'all with a testimony and let you know that our Savior lives and that him and God love us, not everything that was done can be explained, but he wouldn't do anything if it wasn't for a reason. One thing I kept thinking was if I needed to be out here, and i thought about right after Christ is baptized and thought of the following verse (with some alterations): "This is my... son, in whom I am well pleased." From that I know this is where I'm supposed to be and I know that he is pleased with me. Love you all and hope you had a Merry Christmas.

Elder Rogers the Younger 🤣

Small thing to add to the group email. Elder Mace and Elder Vance are two of the Elders we've been hanging out with and they're hilarious. The main thing is that Elder Vance is a big guy but he's the biggest Teddy bear. Elder Mace is a goof and he some how ended up with a squeaky toy chicken and started running through the halls with them

Now a rather funny note for Ian and Chad Russell: one morning in the MTC they made bacon so for lunch I had the left overs... with about 10-15 strips of bacon😍

Elder Rogers the younger

Our investigator, Jeff.

Thank you, love you all.

Elder Rogers the younger

First Three Days

Well hello! Sorry this email won't make it out to almost anyone, I woke up this morning and realized that I didn't bring any of the emails that people had given me haha! Anyway I'll get that sorted out eventually.

Wednesday- After arriving to the MTC I was completely fine, I was just way excited to be here. Later that day though after having the first couple of classes where we first began to role play it started to settle in that "holy crap I'm here for two years!" I got to meet my companion and the people in my district. My companion is Elder Campbell and he is very ready to teach. The other two elders we are with are Elders Harvey and Barrett. For the first few hours it was just Elders Campbell and Harvey, but Barrett hadn't arrived yet. When we got to dinner this random elder came and sat with us and we asked which mission he was going to. Low and behold he's going to Houston as well! (Fyi we're all in the same Houston, Texas mission). So our district consists of four Elders and four Sisters. The Sisters are Sisters Stevens, Jarnagan, Bennett, and Roundy. I found out that Sister Jarnagan is practicing opera and Sister Stevens is from Star Valley.

Thursday- To start off sleep was rough as it was expected, but the day was better and more difficult than the first. This day our district went to class and had to prepare a lesson for a guy role playing as Shaun, a guy who met the elders by accident while they were looking for his neighbor. Elder Campbell and I taught him a quick lesson about the happiness that you can feel from this gospel and about the truth of prayer and for a role play it was actually a really need experience to begin teaching somewhat. We got to meet the branch president as well and his counselors in which one of them knew what airsoft was haha.

Friday- By this day I was feeling a lot better. We taught another lesson with our investigator Shaun and felt that it also went pretty well. We challenged him to read the BOM intro and to pray about it (also ran out of time in the first lesson and had to teach him how to pray at the end of the second lesson). Once again that second lesson was great. Teaching by the spirit makes it so much easier to talk to people. The last thing we did Friday was we went to the TRC building. It's one of the newest buildings there but it's crazy. They mix real investigators with actors and let the new missionaries go in and teach, not knowing if they're real investigators or not. We won't be doing that for another two weeks but it's freaking crazy.

Well I want you all to know that this church is very true. Elder Campbell helped me the other day and he told me that teaching doesn't matter unless we love the people and he's very right about that. I'm happy to be here in the MTC even though some days might be hard, but there's no place better for me to be and to use my time. Love you all!

One more pic from today haha.

Saturday- So today was the P day and we did a few things haha. Started off with breakfast which was crap cuz we didn't want to dress up and go into the main building for a warm breakfast, so we settled for a run down simple breakfast which was cold and not very filling. Definitely learned my lesson there. Next was laundry which I wasn't sure how to do but the machine was simplified to like four buttons haha. After that we went and checked out the store and I was actually impressed with everything they have there. After that and lunch we played a hacky-sack game where you hit it three times and then throw it at someone. I know it sounds painful but it's actually really fun haha. Anyway there's my first few days at the MTC for ya! Love you!

Elder Rogers el Texicano

The MTC

After a big breakfast together, we took him to the MTC.  His time to be there was 1:30.  We were a little behind schedule, but they still let him in!

Elder Richards, from Farmington, greeted us at the curbside.  He is going to the same mission, but Spanish speaking.  He and Korbin will fly out on the same day.  

One last hug.

And he's off!

His Farewell